Lame Joke du Jour

Two drums and a cymbal fall off a cliff.

Ba-dum cha!

Travelling Family part 3

This morning we hiked to Wahclella Falls, a 2 mile round trip hike. Hyrum was in the backpack on Ryan's back. Again, as we left Milaka's house, it was raining/snowing, but about 5 minutes after arriving at the trailhead, all rain stopped and we had sunshine the rest of the day. Sabrina was our trailblazer. Roderic walked all the way there and about 10% of the way back. Then Ryan carried him on his hip. Still with Hyrum on his back. I've learned another way that this area is so green. There is moss growing on all the trees. It looks like a green shag carpet completely covering the trees.

We drove back along the Columbia River Gorge Historic Scenic By-way passing waterfall after waterfall. We stopped at Multnomah Falls and hiked up to the bridge at the brink of the lower falls (.2 miles on a paved trail, pushing Hyrum in the umbrella stroller). Beautiful. It was really remarkable how many waterfalls we saw. Big and small. I guess I'm used to living in a desert. Roderic got to see 2 freight trains up close and personal because the train tracks were right next to the parking lot.

Ryan flew back to Boise tonight. He's got to go to work in the morning. As we were driving along Marine Dr. on our way to the Airport, we got to see several 'neighborhoods' of houses built on the Columbia River. Floating houses. Some houses did have garages, for their boats. Milaka took this picture for me, since I was the driver. Pretty cool.

Travelling Family, part 2

Getting 6 children and 4 adults dressed and out the door for 9am church is not an easy task. We arrived shortly after 9am, while the opening hymn was being sung, #64 On This Day of Joy and Gladness. We didn't pay attention to what verse was being sung, so Milaka led our group into the chapel. The hymn ended. The person saying the prayer waited at the pulpit while we all finished filing into the row, climbing over Ambrose who wanted to sit on the side. Talk about a dramatic entrance. We had a lot of people notice we were visitors. I was surprised at how many said I looked like Milaka, but agreed with them none-the-less.

Every week, Roderic tells us how much he doesn't want to go to church. How he wants to go to Nursery instead of Sunbeams. This week was no different. When we get to church, though, he is happy and running off to his class. This week was no different. Ryan took him down to the primary room, asking where the sunbeams go. Then Roderic happily took the sister's hand and walked with her until he was dropped off in the sunbeam classroom. She asked him what his name was and he said "Wodewic." She turned to Ryan for translation and then Roderic said, "My name is Wodewic Wyan Gibby." Apparently the sunbeam teachers also had a problem understanding his name. As we were putting him to bed, he told us, "Them called me Wobert. My name isn't Wobert, its Wodewic Wyan Gibby." When I picked him up from Sunbeams, the teachers told me he told them that he would be back at Thanksgiving. News to me. Perhaps we'll get Milaka to host the Christensen Thanksgiving dinner at her house this year.

Travelling Family, part 1

We came to Gresham, OR for a long weekend to visit Milaka and family. As soon as we arrived yesterday, it was time for Aanja's birthday party to start. I went with Milaka, Sabrina, Aanja, 3 friends and Ambrose to a giant mall 20 minutes away to a Build-a-Bear Workshop. It was a really cool party.

Today, we braved the rain/snow/sleet/hail and went to the beach. Before we saw the ocean though, we went and toured the Tillamook Cheese factory. It was not fully operational today, since it is a Saturday. [Of the 3 factory tours I've ever been on, only one of them had working machines and people, and that was in Ukraine!] We did get to see two ladies heft 42 lb. blocks of cheese, watch them get vacuum-sealed in plastic bags, put in boxes and go up a spiral conveyor belt. Then, we got to EAT cheese samples. Yum. Did you know that they age sharp cheddar cheese for about 2 years? And of course we had to buy a magnet for my collection and some ice cream cones.

We went to the beach at Oceanside, OR. It was beautiful. When we left the van, the sun was shining and it even felt warm. After about 10 minutes, Ryan ran back to the van to get mittens (for Roderic) and warm hats. All told, 12 sand dollars were collected (6 coming back to Boise with us). Roderic was hilarious in picking up a handful of sand, running to the edge of the surf, throwing it in and running back as fast as he could to not get his feet wet. After another 15 minutes, we were all cold and it started raining again, so we ran back to our cars. We drove for a few minutes and then we stopped at Cape Meares, walked down to the lighthouse and did a bit of whale watching.

To come back to Gresham, we drove along US 101, Pacific Coast Highway. It was such a beautiful drive. We stopped at Cannon Beach to eat dinner at Mo's. I had Parmesan Cheese Sole and Ryan had Halibut and we both had a cup of the most delicious Clam Chowder. The kids shared a Fish & Chips basket and a Chicken Strips Basket. It was too bad that Ambrose didn't make it to the restroom before he puked in the gift shop/lobby of the restaurant. And then it took several minutes for the staff to come and clean it up. Commenting on the slowness of the cleanup a woman at the table next to us said, "Some tables have views of the ocean; and other tables have views of vomit." When the staff finally came, they first thing asked if he had eaten the clam chowder. Apparently children have had problems with it before.

All in all, this has been a great day. It has been neat to spend time with Milaka, Doug, Alton, Aanja and Ambrose. And yes, Noelle, I did bring up creating a blog with her, but she's not ready to set one up yet.

Spring Break!

In the Boise School District, Spring Break starts at 1:15 pm on the second to last Friday of March. This year it happened to be Easter weekend. So at church, instead of the chapel being filled to the brim with people, it was sparsely populated. The primary children (who were there) sang "Hosanna". Roderic wouldn't go up to sing, though; he was feeling shy and nervous (and he peed his pants). I got to sing "I Walked Today where Jesus Walked" in an ensemble of talented people (standing next to my honey) with an amazing accompanist. Our ward choir didn't sing because all of the accompanists and a lot of singers were out of town for Spring Break. In January, at a choir practice where I asked who would be in town on Easter, 3 people raised their hands. Then as I was finding people to sing in a triple-quartet, lots of singers came out of the woodwork. They must not have been at that one choir practice in January.

Since we have Sabrina enrolled in the Optional Calendar class at her school, meaning a year-round schedule, we rarely leave town the week of spring break. Starting last Friday at 1:15 pm, she has no school for the next 3 weeks!

The YMCA offers swimming lessons for school-aged children during Spring Break that cost $15. The lessons are daily for 45 minutes (15 minutes of instruction outside of the pool and 30 minutes in the water). Stacy and I are carpooling, so I'm only driving on Tuesday and Thursday. During the lessons, the kiddie pool (1 to 2 ft. deep) is open and available for the younger siblings of those taking lessons. Roderic and Hyrum had a lot of fun in the pool this morning. Although, Roderic is scared by the buckets of dropping water in one corner of the pool. And he refused to go down the dragon slide.

When Sabrina got home yesterday, I asked if she was in the same level class as Sara and Tessa. She said no. I asked how many swimmers were in her class. She said 2. I asked how many swim instructors. She said 2. Lucky her! Lucky me! We are basically getting a week of private lessons for $15! (Today she said there were 3 teachers for her class.) If you'd like to watch her technique, which is a lot better than mine, click on the movie below.

Enchanted

I went to see "Enchanted" with Sabrina and Mitzi Richlin on Saturday. We went to our favorite movie theatre, Overland Park Cinemas, where adults can pay $3 to see the movie or $3.50 to see the movie and get a food ticket worth $3. The child's ticket is $1.50. Using the food ticket, Sabrina got a small buttered popcorn and I got a small caramel corn (nothing like Turk's delicious caramel corn, but good none-the-less). We paid $5 for the afternoon out.

This was the first movie since "That Thing You Do" (1996) that I left the theatre singing the songs and really wanting to buy the soundtrack. As I'm all about digital music now, I downloaded the whole album from amazon.com because it was $9.49 there versus $9.99 at iTunes. Although, the album from iTunes did include the music video of Ever Ever After sung by Carrie Underwood (but I don't care about music videos, so I saved the $.50 and am able to play these songs on my mp3 player). My brother, Colter says that listening to "Happy Working Song" while cleaning the house does keep things interesting (although he had no rodents helping him). I'll be giving that a try soon.

So, if you're even slower to see new movies than me, I recommend this one. If it's no longer in a dollar theatre near you, watch it on DVD (but get the wide screen version instead of the full screen one). I was pleased to see a movie that was pro-marriage. It is rated PG. I bought it on DVD the day it came out at Wal-mart (mistakenly picking up the full screen version argh!).

At school with Roderic

One of the many joys of motherhood is seeing the amazing imaginations of my children. For example, when I had my jaw surgeries in the fall of 2002, Sabrina fixed up an apple box to be a hospital bed for herself. We spent hours of recovery with her in her 'hospital bed' and me on the couch.

The latest encounter was last night, when Roderic decided that our family should go to school and he would be the teacher. School started out by him telling a story from my childhood. It was hilarious. Especially since Ryan couldn't understand what Roderic was talking about. And that is when the no laughing sign appeared. I had to get it on film, but he wouldn't retell my story.



We had a tough time getting Roderic to stop the school so we could SSP (Scripture, Song, Prayer) with the family.

And since you're probably wondering about the story from my youth, here it is:
For several years, I had a special stool that I would uses in the kitchen. It had words on it, in all caps, "STAND UP TO BE TALL. SIT DOWN TO BE SMALL." It was my stool because one year on my birthday (3rd or 4th) my whole family went to the store and purchased this red stool. My older brother and sisters like to tease me that it wasn't really my stool, but it was. It was bought in MY presence on MY birthday. They are just jealous to not to have such a cool stool.

Roderic-isms

The other night, as Ryan was kneeling down in horsey position, Roderic climbed on his back. When I asked him to come with me to brush his teeth, he replied,

"I want to stay with this guy. He's cleaning the floor."

And that was true, Hyrum had just puked on the floor in their bedroom and Ryan was cleaning it up with a towel.

I Love to See the Temple

About 3.5 years ago our stake Relief Society challenged the sisters in our stake to increase our personal temple attendance. I sat at that meeting with baby Roderic in my arms thinking to myself that surely they were not talking to me. I kept that thought in my head for the next 6 months and then I had an epiphany on how I could regularly attend the temple.
I organized a Temple Playgroup. That first group consisted of 6 ladies, me included. Combined we had 13 children, the oldest being 5. During the summer, we met twice a month and then when school started, we met weekly. Three women would go to the temple each time and three women would stay and watch all the children at one house. It worked amazingly well. The children were pleasant, as if they knew that their moms were doing temple work. As Enrichment leader, I opened it up to the entire Relief Society and we had several groups form. Now fast forward to today. Our ward currently has one Temple Playgroup. We meet every other Wednesday. We have 7 ladies in the group, so four will attend the temple each time and 3 will watch the 11 children.

I got to attend the temple this morning. I had amazing things come to me while there. A friend shared her insights with me. It was wonderful. I am so glad that the Lord inspired me to create these Temple Playgroups.

Randomness tied together

So I've had 4 or 5 posts swimming in my head this week, but I haven't taken the time until now to type them down. The kids are in bed and Ryan is at the Temple.

Sisters:
Last Sunday night, I went to a fireside that our Stake Relief Society put on, entitled "Sisters All Are We". It got me to thinking how much I love my 3 sisters.

• We sing Barbershop together. We've done some hilarious renditions of songs at weddings with altered lyrics ("In the Good Old Summertime" for Holly & Bob and "Last Night on the Back Porch" for Keturah & Brook)
  
• Growing up, I would take their clothes from their closets and wear them. There are few advantages of being the youngest sister.
  
• Milaka was not only my Bradley Childbirth Instructor, but also my "doula" when I had Sabrina.
• Shanda was game in planning a trip to Europe to pick up Keturah from her mission. I provided the cheap plane tickets. She provided the cheap hotels.
• Keturah helped me go to the store on Valentine's day 1995 to buy a gift, after Ryan had called and told me he had something to give me. (It was the book "Believing Christ". I made him sit in our front room and write something to me on the inside cover of the book.)
• The first quilt I ever pieced together was for Shanda's oldest boy. She gave it back to me when he was 2 because she said it meant more to me than to him.
• After Keturah and Milaka got hooked on watching "What Not to Wear", shopping together became even more enjoyable.
• We all went to see Harry Connick, Jr. in concert in SLC after eating at the Melting Pot.
  

I really love my sisters. Its hard to live far away from them. I'm happy I get to see 2 of them this month. FYI this photo was taken of me and my sisters at Lagoon in 1991.

Soccer:
Can you believe the soccer season has started again? I thought Sabrina's coach was kidding in his email three weeks ago that it was time for practices to start up again. (There was lots of snow on the ground at the time.) He was serious. For the first two weeks of practice, they met in our church gym and played. This week they were outside at the elementary school and the first game was today! After a warm front pushed through here for the last 2 days, we got back to cold, wet weather. It said it was 40 degrees this morning, but felt like 19 with the rain. Ryan stayed home with the boys. I got to be the line judge. Sabrina played defender and goalie. The ending score was Blue Dolphins (Sabrina's team) 7, Red Devils 2.

Quilting:
So my last quilting class was on Tuesday. We learned how to make binding and bind the quilt and how to blind appliqué with a machine. Really cooll stuff. My sewing machine has sat on a corner of my kitchen table for more than a week now because I REALLY WANT TO QUILT MY QUILT, but that hasn't ever made it up to the "Better" list. Perhaps this week? Probably not due to our trip to Utah on Thursday for Allison's wedding.

Volunteering at School:
Last year, Sabrina entered a musical composition in the school's Reflections contest. She won first prize. It went to be judged at the district level. She won first prize. It went on to the state level. She won Honorable Mention. After the award ceremony for the state prize, she was bawling because our school had just stopped being members of the PTA, so we would not be eligible to participate in Reflections again, and she would not be able to win any more medals. In steps Mom. I single-handedly created, organized, etc, etc, etc the 2008 Trail Wind Elementary School PTO Art Contest. The entries were due last Friday. The awards ceremony was yesterday. There were 124 entries in 6 categories. Sabrina entered a musical composition. She won first prize. (I was not the judge.)

Transmission:
We got to get a new transmission for our 2002 Honda Odyssey. As the service manager at Larry Miller Honda said, "Your transmission needs to go to heaven." Driving home from Roderic's tumbling class last Monday, I couldn't go faster than 25mph. Even with the engine doing 3000rpm. Then the malfuction indicator light turned on. Then the TCS light turned on. Then the D (for drive) light started flashing! It was scary to drive the van like that. The good news is that it was part of a recall (that I don't remember hearing about but my neighbor with a 2001 model does) so we paid $0.

Pipe Organs:
Yesterday afternoon, Sabrina's violin teacher organized a special treat for all of her students. We were invited to Immaneul Lutheran Church downtown for an organ demonstration. In their group lessons they've been talking about Bach and she thought it would be neat for the students to get to hear Bach's music on his primary instrument. I learned so much. Did you know that they control the volume on pipe organs by opening and closing shutters that lead to a room with pipes in it? Did you know that every rank has one pipe for every key on the keyboard? Did you know that organs can get out of tune? That church's organ was out of tune. Aparently there is no organ tuner in Boise, they have to fly in from SLC or SEA. Our ward organist is holding an "Organ Workshop" to teach interested people to play the organ. It begins on Tuesday. I'm planning on going.

Now if you've gotten to the end of this, and still don't see how all of this randomness is tied together, please realize that I typed it thus it is together.